TV’s Most Shocking Deaths: From [Spoiler] on ‘Game of Thrones’ to [Redacted] on ‘You’

Credit: Peter Kramer/Netflix; Courtesy of Netflix

TV's Most Shocking Deaths: From [Spoiler] on 'Game of Thrones' to [Redacted] on 'You'

Whether it's drama, comedy or something in between, TV show writers have never been afraid to surprise audiences with a memorable character death. Back in March 1975, M*A*S*H became a TV death pioneer when Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) died in the season 3 finale. The character was headed home after being honorably discharged from the army, but before he could make it, he was killed by enemy fire. Some 21st-century shows, however, make M*A*S*H's surprise death look tame. Lost, which ran from 2004 to 2010, became known for its shocking twists before the first season was even finished. In the April 2005 episode "Do No Harm," viewers were devastated when Boone (Ian Somerhalder) died after a plane fell on him in the jungle, and his passing was just the beginning. Manifest, You, Game of Thrones and more hit series have also thrown fans for a loop by killing off fan favorites. Scroll down for a look back at some of the most shocking deaths in TV history — and remember, spoilers ahead!

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George Cooper Sr. (Lance Barber) on 'Young Sheldon'

Sheldon Cooper’s beloved father, George Cooper Sr., died of an offscreen heart attack during the final season of Young Sheldon. His sudden death was revealed in the final moments of May 9’s episode, which premiered one week before the two-part finale is set to air on May 16.

Fans of The Big Bang Theory, which Young Sheldon serves as a prequel, will remember adult Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) referencing his father dying from a heart attack when he was 14 and growing up in East Texas.

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Cara (Sabina Gadecki) on ‘Fire Country’

During season 2, episode 5, Cara gets into an ambulance accident during a fire tornado. When the vehicle crashes, she suffers brain damage. Without access to the hospital, she dies but not before Bode (Max Thieriot) agrees to stay on the straight and narrow for her daughter, Genevieve. (Bode could be Gen’s biological father.)

Jake (Jordan Calloway), meanwhile, can’t get to Cara in time to propose to her as planned, leaving another character heartbroken.

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Natalie Scatorccio (Juliette Lewis) on 'Yellowjackets'

During the season 2 finale, Natalie sacrifices herself to save Lisa after Misty charges at her with phenobarbital. Natalie's death is ultimately ruled an overdose as her group of friends grieve her passing.

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Logan Roy (Brian Cox) on 'Succession'

The patriarch of the Roy family passed away during season 4 after boarding a flight on his private jet. His children ultimately said goodbye to him over the phone — but not every sibling managed to say something to their dad before he died.

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Zeke on ‘Manifest’

After helping wife Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxbourgh) assist her fellow 828 passengers on Netflix’s Manifest, Zeke ultimately sacrificed himself during the 10th episode of season 4. As an empath, Zeke channeled nephew Cal Stone’s (Ty Doran) renewed cancer pain into himself, saving Cal's future. It is his understanding that Cal would likely be more integral to saving the fate of humanity during the rest of the season.

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Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) on 'Stranger Things'

During season 4, viewers met Eddie when he found himself at the center of a murder investigation. The leader of the Hellfire Club teamed up with Dustin and his friends to help them defeat Vecna — and clear his name. In Volume 2, however, Eddie comes full circle when he decides to stay behind in the Upside Down as a distraction instead of running away from danger. Eddie gets Dustin to safety but ends up losing too much blood himself. When Dustin returns for Eddie, he dies in his arms as a hero.

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Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker) on 'The Flash'

Saving the world sometimes means losing a hero. In order to save Caitlin (Panabaker) from the villainous Deathstorm (Robbie Amell) in the middle of season 8, Team Flash asked Frost (also Panabaker) to level up her powers. The process resulted in Frost's death, leaving a devastated Caitlin without her sister figure. "I loved getting to play her and all the different variations of her, the evil version, and then particularly these last couple of seasons, getting to see her really come into her own and have experiences and grow up and mature and take responsibility for her actions, I've enjoyed that immensely," Panabaker told EW about the shocking death. "So obviously it's a loss, but it did make for some great storytelling."

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Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) on ‘Ozark’

There were many deaths throughout Ozark’s four seasons, but the one that shocked fans the most was when Ruth was killed in an act of retaliation. During the second half of the final season, which aired in April 2022, Ruth murdered Javi (Alfonso Herrera) after she learned he was responsible for the death of her cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan). Her revenge plan led to a startling twist when Javi’s mom followed her home in the series finale and shot her.

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Villanelle (Jodie Comer) on 'Killing Eve'

Fans were shocked when Eve and Villanelle finally gave into their feelings during the series finale — only to have the assassin killed at the very last moment.

Executive producer Sally Woodward revealed that Villanelle’s death was planned "quite early on" in the writing process. "We were open to something else sort of declaring itself, but it never really changed," she told Deadline in April 2022, shortly after the season 4 finale premiered. "We also didn’t want to do anything horrible to her. I mean, pretty horrible. We didn’t want to do anything gruesome to her. We didn’t want to sort of go, here, 'See how you like it.' And we wanted it to be epic as well. She was surrounded by a sort of celestial light because she’s a special being."

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Ashtray (Javon Walton) on 'Euphoria'

Although all signs pointed to Fez (Angus Cloud) being killed off, it was actually his little brother who died protecting him. After killing Custer (Tyler Chase), the young boy refuses to let Fez take the blame for his actions and locks himself in the bathroom with a gun.

He ends up shooting Fez by accident through the door before the police kill Ash.

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Michael Cordero (Brett Dier) on 'Jane the Virgin'

When Jane Villaneuva's (Gina Rodriguez) husband died suddenly in season 3, tears were heard all across the CW-viewing universe. It was later revealed that Michael survived — this was a telenovela, after all — but the devastating moment when Jane found out about her first love's "death" remains seared in fans' brains.

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Mr. Big (Chris Noth) on 'And Just Like That'

Sex and the City fans were devastated in December 2021 when Carrie's husband, John James Preston (a.k.a. Mr. Big), died in the first episode of revival series, And Just Like That. The financier, who experienced heart problems during season 6 of SATC's original run, had a heart attack after a particularly invigorating session on his Peloton bike.

After the episode debuted, Peloton issued a statement noting that Mr. Big's death couldn't only be attributed to his exercise. "Mr. Big lived what many would call an extravagant lifestyle — including cocktails, cigars, and big steaks — and was at serious risk as he had a previous cardiac event in season 6,” the company told Us Weekly in a statement at the time. “These lifestyle choices and perhaps even his family history, which often is a significant factor, were the likely cause of his death. Riding his Peloton bike may have even helped delay his cardiac event.”

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Jane Margolis (Krysten Ritter) on 'Breaking Bad'

Breaking Bad had plenty of violent deaths throughout its five seasons, but few hurt as much as Jane's did in season 2. After Jane overdosed on heroin, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) allowed her to choke on her own vomit rather than help her. The tragedy was one of the first times audiences got a hint of how dangerous Walter would eventually become.

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Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) on 'You'

After Love's murderous tendencies got out of control during You season 3, which premiered in October 2021, it became clear that it was only a matter of time before Joe (Penn Badgley) would do something about it. Still, it was shocking when he killed her and framed her for all their previous crimes, then fled to Paris in pursuit of a new life.

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Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) on 'The Walking Dead'

Like Lost before it, The Walking Dead was known for killing off beloved characters, but arguably no death was as upsetting as that of Glenn Rhee's (Steven Yeun) in season 7. Comic book readers assumed the death was coming given its occurrence in the source material, but the moment came as a shock to fans who hadn't read the series — and most viewers agreed that it was surprisingly graphic, even for a zombie apocalypse show.

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Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling) on 'Chicago Med'

In the season 5 premiere of Chicago Med, Ava Bekker finally admitted that she murdered Conner's dad; moments later, she slit her own throat and died by suicide.

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Brian 'Otis' Zvonecek (Yuriy Sardarov) on 'Chicago Fire'

During the season 8 premiere, Otis was killed in a basement fire and was found by his best friend, Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso). Before taking his last breath in a hospital bed, he muttered to Cruz, "Brother, I will be with you, always," in Russian.

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Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) on 'Game of Thrones'

On the series finale of Game of Thrones, the Queen of Dragons was murdered by Jon Snow (Kit Harington), after she murdered an entire city and planned to kill his close friend, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage). During the May 2019 episode, he told her, “You are my queen, now and always,” before kissing her and stabbing her.

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Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr) on 'The Conners'

Following Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet in May 2018, the revival Roseanne was canceled by ABC. In June, the network announced they’d be bringing back The Conners, a sitcom that would follow the family without its lead character. On the series premiere of The Conners, the family found out Roseanne had died due to an overdose on opioids, which made sense since the character had struggled with a pill addiction in the past. Following the October premiere, Barr said in a statement that the death “lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show."

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Jon Snow (Kit Harington) on 'Game of Thrones'

Oh no, they didn’t! In the season 5 finale of the HBO drama, Jon Snow (Harington) is tricked into coming outside before being stabbed by fellow members of the Night’s Watch in front of a sign that read “traitor.” When he’s finally stabbed in the heart by little Olly (Brenock O’Connor), he dropped to the ground as a pool of blood circled around him. Though the Song of Ice and Fire books remained vague about Snow’s fate, episode director David Nutter confirmed, “Jon Snow is dead.” As fans predicted, however, Jon later came back to life thanks to some fire magic from Melisandre (Carice van Houten).

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Alison Bailey (Ruth Wilson) on 'The Affair'

Showtime shocked audiences by killing off one if its lead characters during season 4 of The Affair. Not only was Alison’s death – first ruled a suicide but cause is still up in the air – surprising, the timing was also strange, as it happened during episode eight of the penultimate season. “Ruth wanted to leave the show. That was a request, so that was decided basically before we started writing. It wasn't a discovery of any kind. That was very deliberate,” cocreator and showrunner Sarah Treem told The Hollywood Reporter. “And actually, we shot all of her work first. Her whole story line was shot before we shot anything else.”

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Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas) on 'Chicago P.D.'

During the season 5 finale of NBC’s Chicago P.D., Alvin Olinsky’s (Elias Koteas) fate was revealed: the longtime detective died after being stabbed in prison. He was serving time for a murder he did not commit, but didn’t want to turn in his best friend. Ultimately, his loyalty cost him his life.

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Shireen Baratheon (Kerry Ingram) on 'Game of Thrones'

Not cool, GoT! Fans of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire book series watched in horror in season 5 as Melisandre convinced Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) to burn his young daughter alive at the stake as a sacrifice to the Lord of Light. 

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Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman) on 'Revenge'

In the winter finale of Revenge's fourth season, Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman) took several bullets from an assassin while saving the life of his ex Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp). He died in Em's arms, and Bowman later said, "By having him save Emily and sacrifice himself, it was the perfect, fitting end for the character."

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Gemma Teller (Katey Sagal) on 'Sons of Anarchy'

In the penultimate episode to the FX show’s series finale, lead Jax (Charlie Hunnam) confronts his mother Gemma (Katey Sagal) after learning she was responsible for the brutal murder of his wife, Tara (Maggie Siff). Gemma asks Jax to kill her, and he shoots her out in the garden.

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Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) on 'House of Cards'

The second season of House of Cards started off with a bang when Zoe Barnes (played by Kate Mara) was killed when Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) pushes her in front of a subway train.

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Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) and Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) on 'Grey's Anatomy'

Though Grey's Anatomy is known for its twists and turns, three of the most shocking deaths on the medical drama involved main characters. At the end of the fifth season, a seriously injured, unrecognizable man comes into the hospital after jumping in front of a bus to save a woman's life. The doctors later realize it's George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), and he later dies in the sixth season premiere. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) and Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) both died because of a shocking plane crash.

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Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland) on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

After appearing in more than 50 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kristine Sutherland took her last breath on the beloved show as Joyce Summers. In "The Body," perhaps the most critically acclaimed episode in the entire cult series, Buffy Summers' mother passed away of natural causes near the end of the fifth season of the show, as she is found by her vampire-fighting daughter in her home. 

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Ned Stark (Sean Bean) and the Red Wedding on 'Game of Thrones'

Known for its bloody and gruesome moments, Game of Thrones shocked fans when Ned Stark (Sean Bean) was killed off at the end of the first season. The House Stark leader was beheaded by the order of the maniacal King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson). Later, in the third season, Catelynn Stark, Robb Stark and Talisa Stark died at the Red Wedding — in which Walder Frey double-crosses House Stark and, avenging a past slight, massacres Catelynn, her son Robb and his pregnant wife, among many others.

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Dan Conner (John Goodman) on 'Roseanne'

In a series finale twist, it was revealed that Roseanne's husband, Dan Conner (John Goodman), died of a heart attack. While it appeared he had survived the health scare, the final episode showed that the plot was a story that Roseanne had written and altered.

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Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) on 'The O.C.'

Gorgeous, damaged popular girl Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) left the world of The O.C. in the finale of the show's third season. In a famous shot of Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) carrying her in his arms, Marissa succumbed to injuries from a car crash and died. 

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Mrs. Landingham (Kathryn Joosten) on 'The West Wing'

In a heartbreaking loss, West Wing fans said goodbye to Delores Landingham (Kathryn Joosten), when she died in a car crash at the end of the second season, when President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) was coming to grips with his multiple sclerosis. 

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Omar (Michael K. Williams) on 'The Wire'

In season five of The Wire, fan favorite Omar Little was killed off of the show. In a shocking scene, charismatic hustler Omar (Michael K. Williams) is checking out at a convenience store when he is shot and killed. 

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J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) on 'Dallas'

The celebrated nighttime soap opera Dallas played host to one of the most famous murder-mystery plotlines in television history in the show's third season. Main character J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) was shot by an unknown assailant, spawning the catchphrase, "Who shot J.R.?"

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Susan Biddle Ross (Heidi Swedberg) on 'Seinfeld'

In what was one of the more random — and perhaps hilarious — TV deaths, Susan Biddle Ross (Heidi Swedberg) passed away on Seinfeld after being poisoned by the glue on the envelopes to her wedding invitations. 

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Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo) on 'The Sopranos'

One of the more moral characters on The Sopranos, Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo) was killed in the fifth season of the HBO show. After agreeing to inform the FBI, Christopher Moltisanti's (Michael Imperioli) love is killed — brutally, of course — by mobster Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt). 

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John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) on 'Lost'

In a show full of deaths, the loss of John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) was one of the most dramatic on Lost. After getting seemingly murdered and later reappearing, Locke's death was confirmed when it was revealed that the Smoke Monster had been taking on his form. 

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Teri Bauer (Leslie Hope) on '24'

Teri Bauer (Leslie Hope) made it through season 1 of 24 before dying in the 24th episode and finale. Jack Bauer's (Kiefer Sutherland) wife is killed by the traitor Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke) after she finds out incriminating information about her. 

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Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) on 'Boardwalk Empire'

In the second season finale, Boardwalk Empire fans said goodbye to Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt). As Darmody's life crumbled around him he was shot by his former mentor, Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi). 

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Brody (Damian Lewis) on 'Homeland'

After fighting the good fight for three seasons, Nick Brody (Damian Lewis) lost his life in the third season finale. The war vet — who had complicated alliances with both terrorist organizations and the U.S. —  became a fugitive and evaded death time and time again, but was finally captured and hanged by the Iranian military.

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Will Gardner (Josh Charles) on 'The Good Wife'

Will Gardner (Josh Charles) was killed off midway through the fifth season of The Good Wife. In an unexpected moment, Alicia Florrick's (Julianna Margulies) colleague, friend, and on-and-off lover is shot and killed in a courtroom by his mentally ill client. 

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Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) on 'Downton Abbey'

After welcoming his newborn baby George with Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), an emphatically happy Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) dies in a tragic car accident on his way back from meeting his son at the end of the third season. Stevens asked to be written off of the series in order to pursue other opportunities.